UPDATE: "We can confirm that Kathy Griffin is leaving E!'s Fashion Police. We wish her all the best and are grateful for her time on the show, as well as the many laughs that she gave us all," E! said in a statement to Us Weekly. "Fashion Police will return, as scheduled, on Monday, March 30 at 9 p.m. with our talented co-hosts Giuliana Rancic and Brad Goreski and Executive Producer Melissa Rivers."
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And she’s out! Kathy Griffin is done with E!’s Fashion Police after only seven episodes. The Emmy award-winning comedienne’s exit comes after E! host and fellow co-host Giuliana Rancic got blasted for making inappropriate comments about Zendaya Coleman’s dreadlocks on the show and just days after co-host Kelly Osbourne’s own exit.
"I discovered that my style does not fit with the creative direction of the show and now it's time to move on," Griffin, who took over for Joan Rivers following her September 2014 death, explained on Twitter on Thursday, March 12.
“When I chose to step into the shoes of my beloved Joan Rivers…I was thrilled to continue her legacy as a woman being brash and eccentric on television. I am a freedom-loving female and gay rights activist who loves to find the funny in all people, attitudes, beliefs, and appearances, but only when the context permits intelligent humor,” she explained. “My brand of humor, while unrepentant and unafraid, is all about CONTEXT…Listen, I am no saint…But I do not want to use my comedy to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance towards difference.”
“I want to help women, gay kids, people of color and anyone who feels underrepresented to have a voice and a LAUGH!,” she added, while wishing the “E! team only the best.”
Griffin thanked her fans and concluded that she hopes to “continue to make you all laugh performing live or on television where I can be smart, irreverent, unrepentant and unafraid in an observational way that is candid, honest, and justified.”
Although Griffin failed to mention the drama surrounding Rancic’s comments in her post, the funnywoman did admit to the Chicago Sun Times’ Splash magazine that she “wouldn’t have said the joke in the first place.”
